Language: Muko-Muko

Classification

This entry has been retired and is featured here only for bookkeeping purposes. Either
the entry has been replaced with one or more more accurate entries or it has been retired
because it was based on a misunderstanding to begin with.

Language surveys completed in 2007 identified Muko-Muko as a dialect of
Minangkabau, with a shared ethnolinguistic identity, shared culture, and shared
comprehension. The neighboring variety, Pekal [pel], was reportedly
incomprehensible.

Muko-Muko shares the same phonological innovations as the Minangkabau dialects
to the immediate north of it. The survey respondents stated they identified
themselves as being part of the Minangkabau linguistic grouping and can
understand more central dialects of Minangkabau. Muko-Muko was listed as a
dialect of Minangkabau in Wurm and Hattori (1981) but the Ethnologue has it as a
distinct language. The Wurm and Hattori map for southern Sumatra has Muko-Muko
delineated with a dashed line inside the Minangkabau solid line, showing a
dialect. The WIST survey of 2007 confirmed the ethnolinguistic identity of the
Muko-Muko as being part of the Minangkabau grouping. The Pekal, also shown in
the Wurm and Hattori atlas as a dialect of Minangkabau, did not have this same
self identity, but identified themselves more with the Malayic varieties to the
south of Bengkulu. Southern Sumatra survey report forthcoming.